I have been so disappointed with myself and my body to not have been in class the previous 2 weeks so I relate extremely to the bummer is to miss out on class time. I am so sorry for whatever the reasons were and hope all is better now. That being said, I was grateful this provided the extended assignment of watching the videos that were all so uniquely wonderful in their own ways. First, I watched the ted talk on the concept of singular narratives by Chimamanda Ngizu Adichie. Through her talk, I could see how deeply this issue is rooted in our storytelling especially amongst families from one generation to another. It made me think about the times in my life where I have been wrong about another human because I start to see them through my eyes instead of the ones my elders have told me to use. Sometimes, they are wise and correct. And others, they are singular and misguided of full truth.
After that, I buckled up to watch the two longer ones of “One Woman, Many People” by Sarah Jones and the interview with Anna Devere Smith. I have been a fan of Anna’s work for a few years now and I never fail to learn something new every time I cross paths with her words. She spoke so eloquently about the history and logistics of how she makes her work and said one thing in particular that was very loud to me. She said, “Work harder.” You can tell she has a lot of young artists in awe of her (my self included) constantly looking for answers and advice. This advice was so simple and to the point. Work harder, want it greatly, and essentially screw anyone that gets the way of your greatness. I also admired how she took space to call out how this will be received in different way based on skin color. The extra effort and work ethic goes unnoticed in women of color. It will be recognized less. I think this was her personal motivator to always push her to follow her own advice. It clearly worked quite well for her.
Sarah Jones seemed to have a similar style of performance but incorporated a bit more fiction and comedic flare, which I always will be drawn to. At a conference surrounding the topic of the “body,” she embodied all her characters to a T. Each of them had something to say from their different perspectives on the world and Sarah Jones range as a performer allowed her to move seamlessly from character to it’s opposite. I think this not only showed importance of character for me in performance, but also how important character is in getting behind a message. When you hear a specific point of view, even if you disagree with it, you can’t argue or deny its existence. In an odd way, I was able to listen to points of views more being represented by her because there wasn’t an ego attached to them. I think all the videos this week exemplified how when we remove the ego and predispositions from narrative, we can absorb larger messages of work more holistically.
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